Chapter 11. Unknown Dangers
It was almost a week later when Xavier finally called back. He was unlucky enough to do so at a time when Jess was in the shower and Becker answered the phone.
"Jess' phone," he answered.
"Is this Becker?"
"Yes…who is this?"
"Xavier, I was returning Jess' call."
Becker's eyes narrowed, "About time,"
"How's Elise?" he asked.
"Like you care," he spat, his temper getting the best of him.
"Of course I care! She's my daughter, I'd just lost my wife, I needed some time to get myself back together so I could be a good father to her." he retorted angrily.
"And she'd lost her mother, did you really think she needed to lose you too?" he bit back.
"Becker, what's going on? Who is that?" Jess asked, having just come out of the bathroom, wrapped in a fluffy robe and still toweling her hair.
"With all due respect, it's not your place to decide what my family does and doesn't need," he replied.
"You made it my place when you abandoned her, and turned my fiancé's life upside down."
"I thought you were just her boyfriend…and I knew Jess could handle it, she's always been strong."
"First off, /were/ is the keyword, second of all, Jessica is nineteen, did you ever think that maybe she wasn't ready for a family, did you think at all?" he yelled into the phone.
At some point Jess had come over and wrapped her arms around his waist reassuringly, taking his hand and kissing his fingers gently. He leaned down and pressed his lips to the top of her head.
"Look, I screwed up, I want to make this right…" he sighed, "Is Jess there?"
"Hold on a minute," he replied, taking the phone from his ear and covering the mouthpiece.
"It's Xa…" he didn't even finish before Jess had the phone out of his hand, a fierce anger blazing in her eyes.
Jess
"Well, well, well, look who decided to give a damn," she greeted him.
"Oh, come on, not you too Jessica," he sighed.
"I'm sorry, were you expecting something nicer?" she asked, her voice sarcastic and flippant.
"Jessica, I messed up, I know that, but you of all people should get this, you saw what losing dad did to mom…"
"Yeah, it destroyed our family, that's why I will never understand how you could walk out on your daughter!"
"It's more complicated than that, I was…in trouble…and my being near Elise, put her in danger, it's what got her shot, what got Chantelle killed."
She stood silent for a moment, gaping at the phone in shock.
"What kind of trouble?" she asked, causing Becker's attention to snap back toward the conversation.
Jess motioned for Becker to remain silent and subtly flipped the phone to speaker.
"The kind where I owe some not so nice people a very large sum of money," he spoke quietly, "And said not so nice people, are using people close to me to send messages until I pay."
"Do these people know where Elise is?" Becker asked, his voice eerily calm.
"They didn't, but that's changed, I got a text message this morning…"
"What did it say?"
"Your daughter seems happy with Jessica and the soldier, get us our money by the end of the week if you want to keep it that way."
Jess saw something in Becker's eyes, she hadn't before, fear. He moved back to Jess' side, wrapping his arms around her waist, holding her to him tightly.
"How much money are we talking?" Becker asked.
"In American dollars, two hundred and fifty thousand," he responded, his voice almost a whisper.
"What the hell have you gotten yourself into, Xavier?" Jess asked.
"Gambling debts, drugs, like I said, I screwed up."
Becker picked the phone up off the table, "I'll keep Jess and Elise safe, but you stay away from them," he said fiercely, before hanging up.
He slammed the phone down on the table and then turned, taking Jess in his arms, holding her to him tightly.
"I will keep you and Elise safe."